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Comment by foodstances | Hacker News Reader

Does it support Kerberos authentication?

To add on to this -- the about page acknowledges how "many are confused" about the name but effectively brushes it off because "kerberos is a good name", then "it's not actually kerberos, but kerberos.io", followed by "it's a mouthful so we'll just say kerberos" (and the HN submission just says kerberos)

I feel like the name really might be an impediment to the project. Not that people can't ever re-use names, but this really feels like a pointless impediment to discoverability.

It actually is a really good name. But yeah, I had the same confusion.

A better name for a multi-headed security system would be Cerberus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerberus

That might be something they would be willing to change their name to. It's also a commonly used name although probably nowhere near as bad to google as Kerberus.

I think Siemans has that under the Cerberus Pyrotronics brand.

Same dog, different language.

Thanks, that I did not know.

All the Greek patheon have dual Latin/Greek names. Mercury/Hermes etc.

It’s pronounced about the same in either case. “Cerberus” in Latin is pronounced “Kerberus”, just like “cent” is actually pronounced “Kent”.

Already taken by this Android app though https://www.cerberusapp.com/

that's abandoned now I think

It's a name that fits the project description well, but it's a very bad name for an open source security-related project. They could have as well named it OpenCV.

I wonder if MIT trademarked Kerberos.

https://web.mit.edu/kerberos/

US: quick search says Yes, at one time however it's was abandoned in 1994: https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:gm...

Current US trademark holder is a financial group: https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4807:gm...

Edit: it appears the USPTO has sent a notice refusing activation on the above due to requirements not met if I read this correctly: https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=88758894&caseType=SERIAL_...

It’s a uniquely bad name as Kerberos is used by almost every working adult, but hardly anyone understands it.

Usurping a vaguely familiar and confusing thing that is prevalent seems to be a bad choice.

Much ado about nothing. We're adults and tech literate people and we can juggle more than one conflicting identifier in our heads considering we deal with stuff like C++ routinely.

If the project is technically good and they market it well, people will get used to the name and learn to distinguish between this and the auth protocol.

Java and JavaScript

We are adults and we can deal with being sneezed on, therefore lets get sneezed on as much as possible for no reason at all!

just rename as Fluffy

BigBro?

Or Argus

For anyone wondering:

> Argus Panoptes (All-seeing; Ancient Greek: Ἄργος Πανόπτης) or Argos (Ancient Greek: Ἄργος) is a many-eyed giant in Greek mythology. The figure is known for having generated the saying "the eyes of Argus", as in to be "followed by the eyes of Argus", or "trailed by" them, or "watched by" them, etc.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argus_Panoptes

> Argus Panoptes or Argos was a hundred-eyed giant in Greek mythology. He was a giant, the son of Arestor, whose name "Panoptes" meant "the all-seeing one". He was a servant of Hera; one of the tasks that were given to him was to slay the fearsome monster Echidna, wife of Typhon, which he successfully completed.

* https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Creatures/Argus_Panopte...

Changing the name would be excellent marketing.

They could just call it kerbaros instead to clear up the confusion. /s

This reminds me of the way the word for "today" in French is aujourd'hui. "hui" meant "today" in old French, but it sounds like oui ("yes"). If you split it apart, aujourd'hui means something like "of the day of today".

"of the open source video surveillance software of Kerberos"

Or they could make it a multi-part name, like Bronze Kerberos. That way, they can keep the connotation they want, but _

Or they could make it a multi-part name, like Bronze Kerberos. That way, they can keep the connotation they want, but avoid the problems of squatting on a used name.

The documentation introduction is where the name confusion is mentioned.

https://doc.kerberos.io/

I had a very similar moment a few months ago when I found out there is some kind of docker management UI named Heimdall, which is the name of another Kerberos implementation.

It’s like they didn’t even Google the name first.

It's surprising that anybody working on something related to security and computers would have to Google that name.

But yeah, goes to show that Windows is not absolutely omnipresent.

I don’t follow the Windows reference since my understanding was that Kerberos (the authentication protocol and associated project and software) is not platform specific, and also works on UNIX and macOS and other systems where it’s implemented for that matter. Did you think Kerberos was only on Windows?

It's not platform specific, but everything on Windows uses it, while on other platforms it's a decision people have to make (and often decide for something else, because they don't understand kerberos and it's not trivial to setup). Thus, if you haven't heard of it, you are not on Windows.

Where I’ve used it, it was not a decision I had to make (OS X, UNIX). It was a decision made by the IT departments at my organizations. So I’ve most certainly heard of it. No Windows anywhere in the picture. But I get what you are saying, you’re talking about people who have not heard of it.

k6s? Maybe!

Well done.

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